--------------------- Momma told me not to go--------------

 

I see you are already here with your coffee in hand. Mine is a little cold so I believe I will have just a tad more to warm it up. I took this picture a while ago in California and looking at it now, I hear my Mom's famous words. As if she were standing next to me her words echo through my mind, " Don't Do It!", "Don't Go In There!", or "Stay Away From That!" Yes Mom loved me. She didn't want anything bad to ever happen to her little boy. Did her little boy ever listen? Of course not! I had to do everything the hard way only to find out that mom is always right.This time in particular, her voice seemed to be just a little louder. You see, I have watched that show on television,"  The Ghost Whisperer " , and I have watched what happens to them. This time though I was with my daughter, her husband and our little brave escort, Teddy. Nothing more to do but venture on in.                   Standing next to my daughter we started in the mine.Teddy took the lead and we followed him obediently. The mine itself, runs about a half mile underground and comes out overlooking a ten mile valley of salt. When the sun is shining , the glare can blind you but this day was pleasantly mild and we couldn't wait to see the beauty at the other end. We still have to go through this tunnel into the bowels of the earth first though and I wasn't too sure about it. What if the roof collapses while we are in there? Not to mention Ghosts of miners that you know died in there searching for their treasures. These were my last thoughts as I followed our guide.Did I mention that we got there and had no flash light!!!                                                                                               Getting our bic lighters ready, we walked to the point where light no longer existed. This place was in utter darkness. The depth of which I have never seen before. I did have my trusty cam corder and had it set on night vision so we looked into its little display window and inched our way forward. Teddy hadn't barked at anything unseen yet so we knew we were safe. Making our way around a bend in the mine is when we saw it. Three white lights shimmering and hovering in mid air not too far down the track! Thats when I knew this place led straight down to hell and demons were on their way to claim us for trespassing. Teddy kept going though. Ain't no demon gonna scare  him he seemed to be thinking.                                                                           Given no choice I followed right behind him. The lights were moving, up then down. side by side the lights got closer and closer. The blackness of the mine seemed to make the light  glow a brightness that made me have to squint to see.They got closer still. Looking at the cam corder we saw nothing . The lights were still too far for my night vision to pick them up. Still they got closer. Just when I was ready to grab the kids and run for our lives, for our very souls I saw them.                                                                                                      Three little kids with flashlight hats on. I never felt so relieved in my entire life. I just knew we were going to be Satan Snacks for sure. The rest of the mine was nothing compared to what  I had just endured and it was indeed beautiful looking out over the expanse of salt, scrub bushes and cacti known as Death Valley. Had I listened to mom, I could have avoided my near heart attack but I would have missed a priceless memory. Oh yea, I forgot we still had to go back through the mine to get to the truck. Here we go again.